29% of software development teams are struggling with inadequate skills or experience on their team. Ouch. When your software development team is underskilled, they can’t help but face bottlenecks, and be weighed down by technical debt and challenges getting features and updates to launch.
Fiverr Enterprise helps you augment your software development team with freelance talent, available on-demand, and sourced, hired and managed through a single Freelancer Management System (FMS).
To get some tips and tricks for understanding and optimizing your software development team, keep reading!
This article is part of our guide on talent management.
What Is a Software Development Team?
A software development team works together to design, develop, test and maintain software applications. They work collaboratively to deal with a backlog of planned items as well as handle unforeseen challenges on the fly. All members of a software development team need to share skills, knowledge and expertise to work towards a common objective.
Teams usually start by understanding what the needs are of their specific users. This can vary depending on the industry. For example, a retail customer may want a mobile app for their users, while manufacturing businesses could be looking for AR/VR software for training their employees. Once requirements have been decided, a software development team will design the architecture, choose the technology stack, and build and iterate on a solution.
Key Roles in a Software Development Team
Each software development team will look different, and can evolve over time as IT companies change. A large project may need more people in the same role, while a niche project might need a very specific programming language expertise, or rely on a certain set of qualifications. Of course, in some companies, these roles and responsibilities may vary, however you are likely to need the skills of:
- Software engineers: Engineers and developers write the code for the software you’re creating. They design requirements, build the code, implement new features and solutions, and debug or perform fixes to maintain the software.
- Project management: This role is all about overseeing the project as it progresses. Project managers are responsible for keeping the project to time and budget, and deciding where extra help is needed or a project is ready to be closed.
- QA: Quality Assurance reps will test the software so that it doesn’t go live with any issues that could impact user experience (UX). They debug and help to refine the final version so that they can sign off that the software works as it was intended to.
- Business analysts: Taking a less technical approach, Business Analysts ensure that the technical solution being built solves a real customer problem and aligns with business objectives at a higher level. In an Agile team, the Product Owner may take this role.
- UI/UX designers: Sometimes, software developers are so focused on function, they don’t stop to think about design. These members of the team step in and think about how users will interact with the software and make sure it will be a flawless user experience.
- DevOps engineers: In a DevOps team, Development and Operations are not siloed, but function as one whole. This streamlines the development process, and can be further optimized with the addition of Security stakeholders – making it DevSecOps.
- Technical writers: You may need writers behind the scenes creating the documentation for the software. This could be technical manuals, user guides, APIs, and more.
Remember, this is by no means an exhaustive list. In a software development team you may find database administrators, network admins, system architects, security experts, AI and Machine learning experts, Data Science gurus, and more.
Challenges in Software Development Teams
As you can see, software development teams can vary greatly, and if you want to keep all the skills that may be necessary in-house, you’re going to have an extremely large monthly payroll!
Many IT companies struggle to balance their emergent needs with the high cost of maintaining an expensive bench of in-house talent. You want to be able to act fast when a client has a project for your business, but you can’t afford to keep experts on hand for everything from IoT to AI.
One answer is to change your hiring model, and look to on-demand tech talent instead of in-house employees. However, many IT companies turn away from this approach with some specific fears in mind:
- Speed: No guarantee they will find someone in the necessary time frame
- Cost: Staffing agencies are expensive and have only limited talent
- Quality: Contractors with niche skills are hard to find
To solve challenges 1, 2 and 3 – let us introduce you to Fiverr Enterprise.
Steps for Building & Managing a Successful Software Development Team with On-Demand Talent
Fiverr Enterprise provides an IT talent pool, curated especially for you – one place where you can gain instant access to your own carefully vetted Dev & IT talent, that’s ready-to-hire and able to meet your business requirements.
Hire any tech expertise, eliminate resource uncertainty, reduce hiring costs and maintain a consistent and quality workforce. Our SaaS solution enables you to confidently take on more projects, knowing you have a dedicated talent pool that’s always available.
The process is simple:
Step One: Post a job requirement in response to an immediate need.
Step Two: We will provide you with 2-6 pre-vetted candidates in no longer than 48 hours. You can interview 2 or 3 to narrow down the search.
Step Three: Onboard your preferred candidate with automated workflows, and let them get to work immediately.
A Freelancer Management System (FMS) addresses all three of IT companies’ most common fears around working with freelancers, allowing you to achieve:
Speed: Hire any tech expertise, fast
Augment your software development team with whatever skills you need from an on-demand talent pool, and feel confident you can do it to your client’s timeline. Missing very specific expertise? Our white-glove sourcing and hiring service will deliver you reliable and top quality tech talent that’s available to hire immediately.
Cost: Reduce bench spend & stay within your budget
Stay away from costly staffing agencies, and say goodbye to markups and additional fees. Choose freelancers that suit your budget, and hire confidently from a pool of workers that you’ve chosen and loved in the past. No more bench spend on niche software development resources in-house.
Quality: Get access to a global, vetted talent pool
No matter what skills you need for your software development team, we have them available from a pre-vetted, compliant pool of freelancers with proven and trusted experience. From data science and AI, through to specialized integration or automation experts, global talent is ready to commit to your next project.
Ready to think differently about staffing a software development team for your IT company? Schedule a 30-min demo with one of our workforce experts.